with explosives, including cooking gas. that s why you saw such a conflagration, such a incendiary effect, on bodies badly burned, the safari hotel collapsed. and the force of the blast has been the worst that somalia has seen in ten years of fighting and terrorism efforts and fighting al shabaab. it is by far the worst tragedy. as i m speaking to you natalie, bodies are still being removed. yesterday they had mass burials for the victims. they re carrying on the mass burials and of course there are three days of national mourning. we re waiting to see ewho is responsible. but it is by far the deadliest bomb attack in somalia s history. right. and you say that the government has been fighting al shabaab for ten years. what gains overall, farai has it made in trying to push them bark, and certainly the united states has been involved in that as well and other countries? absolutely. now they will not have done this without the help of the united
we will have the latest. welcome back to early start. i m john berman. 30 minutes past the hour. christine romans is off today. history unfolding in africa. president obama becoming the first sitting u.s. president to visit ethiopia. he meets with the ethiopian prime minister this morning and the agenda includes fighting al shabaab and the human right violations. the visit follows a two-day trip to kenya. let s get the latest from robyn kreil in abba ababa. reporter: the trip here is more receptive. there are not the regala we have seen in kenya. everyone wearing obama t-shirts.
because is a country that s the linchpin of this region. leading the fight against terror as it were fighting al shabaab. al shabaab releasing attacks in kenya and one thwarted in ethiopia. when tried to atobaccotack a football game. and a mission that united states european un union earth owner donors give someone to try to stem the fight against extremism in east africa. of course before he gets to ethiopia we know the president is traveling to kenya first and he has been there quite a few times before and if a couple of decades ago. did research on his own family history. talk to us about the affection the people of kenya have for the u.s. president. well there was a lot of
al shabaab? some say that al shabaab has been diminished in somalia because of kenyan action and this is revenge. how powerful is al shabaab? reporter: yes, we have covered al shabaab since it got pushed out of mogadishu. the kenyan force claims the attacks are various soft targets in kenya and nairobi. they killed hundreds of people as a result. the au has managed to push al shabaab from its main hot spots, including kismau. that was a very well known port. most recently where the ugandan forces were forced out of the
at dealing with these groups. not necessarily al shabaab, but in general, radical islam mind-set. and so, that is probably the proximity was number one point. and, you know, the kenyans are very proud. the military tends to be very good. and they ve shown how good they are in recent work in somalia, which is one of the reasons why al shabaab has undertaken this operation. in part to get back at the kenyan military that s been so successful in fighting al shabaab in that war they ve been waging against the government of somalia. tell me a little bit about what it s like to go in to a situation where you have terrorists hiding and choppers hiding, because what we re finding out is that people were going down to the parking lot and hiding underneath cars and now the terrorists know that the kenyan forces are on the roof, and helicopters and they re hiding along with wshs how do you protect the hostages and take out the bad guys? well, part of the problem has been trying to clear that